Wrangling over social welfare

Debate about child poverty ends up on the sidetrack

Child poverty is being discussed in Wels. An employee of the Bienenhaus children's center reports on crying mothers (symbolic photo).

(Bild: Andreas Schiel)

Social welfare benefits are once again the subject of heated debate in Wels. The reason for this is a motion by the SPÖ in the municipal council on concrete measures to combat child poverty. However, the FPÖ voted to assign the request to a committee. Reason: there is a lack of valid figures. 

The Wels SP demanded concrete measures to combat child poverty in the municipal council. "The developments are alarming. One in four children is at risk of poverty," explains local councillor Gloria-Maria Umlauf.

Millions are being spent on the police station or a shooting range for the police sports club, while children grow up starving and neglected in desolate residential areas.

Ralf Drack, parteiloser Gemeinderat

Her motion was rejected. With votes from the FP, the request was assigned to a committee. "This is a way of avoiding the problem. Not a single motion referred to the committee has ever made it back to the local council," says Ralf Drack, an independent local councillor. FP city councillor and social affairs officer Christa Raggl-Mühlberger disagrees: In order to be able to take measures, she needs valid figures. However, there are only records of 470 social welfare recipients: "We want to create measures for all those at risk of poverty - and that includes a single person who earns less than 1572 euros a month but does not apply for social welfare. We don't have these figures yet."

Urgent need for action
Both Drack and Green Party local councillor Hülya Yilmaz, who works at the "Bienenhaus" childcare center, see an urgent need for action: "There are many crying mothers who no longer know how they can manage financially. The city and state are increasingly letting people down."

Social welfare

3.6 million euros was spent on social welfare in Wels in 2015. It has been falling continuously since then. In 2020, it was €2.4 million. Three years later, expenditure stood at €1.8 million.

For Drack, the decline in social welfare expenditure from €3.6 million in 2015 to €1.8 million in 2023 is significant. Raggl-Mühlberger: "In 2022 and 2023, many more people had a job and didn't need support. Everyone who is entitled to social assistance will receive it."